Mallorcan pearls

A week in Mallorca in June... sun, sea, bikes, relaxing....? The reality was unfortunately more sun, rain, wind and low temperatures. A couple of superb meals raised the spirits thankfully. Here they are.


Review 1 - Restaurant Satafona de Son Fong

This was a spontaneous stop as we were STARVING! It's located outside the beautiful town of Arta (I recommend visiting for the boutique hotels and shops, quirky cafes and views from Castillo san Salvador) along a dead end road which takes you up a very small windy road to the little monastery of Ermita de Betlem and its spectacular views out to sea. Time was running out and there were no other options, so we popped in. 

When we arrived it was a bit frantic. It turned out that there had been a sudden rush guests, but we were welcome to stay if we didn't mind waiting half an hour before we could be served. This was no problem for us as we were having a quiet day pottering around exploring the island and had no agenda. Although everyone else was sitting on the patio outside the entrance, we asked if we could go up to the mezzanine area at the back of the restaurant which turned out to have a lovely balcony overlooking the castillo. 

The sun was beating down, there were no other people near us, the view was spectacular.... what more could we want?

After a relaxing wait we ordered and received our food. Satafona specialises in grilled food, with a large open flame grill on which the food is cooked. It is also linked to a local vineyard. 

I can't tell you the joy when I tasted by quail.... I never would normally order quail as they're small and fiddly and often dry.... but I felt I should have something to equal the rustic, local nature of the restaurant. And what a great choice! It was juicy with wonderfully seasoned and crispy skin. And the glass of crisp white wine balanced the salty woody flavours perfectly. I left no scrap of meat on the bones - sucking them till I had to give up, covering my fingers and face in oil!

Ken chose lamb chops which he said were equally beautifully cooked and seasoned. 

After eating we sat back and enjoyed the space some more, browsing the various architecture books and magazines on the window sill - including some collectors' issues of A+U form the 1980s.

Bliss.... it was hard to move on.


Review 2 - Restaurant S'Illot

Ken had read about a Mal Pas Bonnaire outside Alcuidia as a place where the wealthy have traditionally had their holiday villas and recognised for its nice sandy beaches with clear blue water and small marina. So off we trundled...

We didn't seem to find Mal Pas Bonnaire (I think we drove through it but it wasn't obvious) but we did find Restaurant S'Illot up a narrow road that climbs up the hill, hugging the coast. I didn't want to continue on the road - its was getting late and I wanted to get back to Porta Pollensa as there was a restaurant I wanted to try.

Restaurant S'Illot is famous for its views. It is essentially a beach shack and has the relaxed air you'd expect to find in a surf town off the West Coast of Canada or even on a beach in Thailand. The clientele were mixed and included a single woman with her dog, a group of 8 women having a celebratory meal together, a stiff wealthy couple, some German hikers and everything else in between - quite something for a small beach shack!

Initially we were just planning to stay for a drink and admire the view, but then a nearby table was served the house paella.... and the smell was intoxicating! Realising we had not had any paella and our holiday was coming to an end soon, we quickly agreed to stay and placed our order - settling down to watch the sun set and the guests come alive as the wine began to make its magic.

The paella did not disappoint!

The only disappointment came when the sun finally went down behind the Cap Formentor on the opposite side of the large Pollensa bay (which I had cycled up a few days earlier and declared one of the best short rides ever!) and it was time to leave as we had to drive back to our hotel. 

As we were leaving, a group of older guests moved into the small room off the main restaurant area, lit a fire in the corner with herb branches and pine cones, settling in for the evening....

Stuffed again!

Two more round yellow courgettes from the garden - can't face chopping them up so stuffed them again. This time used brown rice and following the last attempt included some feta cheese to improve the flavour. 

Served with a red onion, tomato & avocado salad to add a bit of sharpness to counteract the creaminess if the rice/courgette mixture.

Again, Ken refused to eat the actual courgette - ugh, what a waste!

Stuffed!

Check out my homegrown courgette!

It just asked to be stuffed. 

And called to use the wild rice Annie at work brought me from the US last year which I must admit I've never tried (takes much longer to cook than brown or white rice). 

Here's the finished article: rice, red onions, homegrown cherry tomatoes, fresh herbs and garlic. 

Ok... Should have put the feta in the stuffing rather than the salad on the side. A bit bland. Looked cool though. And rice was really tasty with a great nutty texture. Ate the leftover filling a few days later and much tastier. 

13-08-13

Last minute supper

Nigel's banana cake is the priority tonight. It's Hannah's last day tomorrow before she becomes Mrs Maclean so I thought it would be nice to have cake and a cheeky glass of Prosecco.

Supper all about ease and speed and using up something in the fridge. 

The trend in this house is, if in doubt make an omelette! This one is made with very tasty spinach, home grown tomatoes and Glastonbury cheddar. 

Even Mowgli benefits as he gets to lick out the egg bowl 🐱

22-08-13

Holly Frindle

After a complete soaking at Whipsnade Zoo followed by a rather miserable picnic in the canteen (against the rules but luckily they bent them as the weather so bad) the sun came out and stayed out, enabling us to stand outside drinking Prosecco whilst we cooked our BBQ.

A smorgasbord of food (re photo, it was a big bbq btw!!) served with Tabbouleh and a lettuce, watercress & sprout salad... Followed by rhubarb Eton mess. Mmmmmm....

Oh, and even though it rained my chorizo, goats cheese & watercress sandwich was a fine combination!

The ultimate crumble?

Felicity Cloake, blogger for The Guardian promised that, having tried out various recipes, this was the ultimate crumble recipe... quite a statement and worth testing as I had agreed to make the crumble for pudding.

Felicity Cloake's How to make the perfect crumble

The 'tricks' included:

• A mix or Demerara and caster sugar 
• Adding a sprinkle of water to the crumble mix
• Putting in the freezer for 10 mins

After about 20 mins in the oven it was looking very soggy! So, moved it higher up the oven and left it for a further 20 mins (this might be because it was a very cheap electric oven so temperature and heat circulation was probably unreliable), which did the trick.

The verdict? 
Nice crispy topping - lovely crispy clumps which the one I made one recently didn't have, so yes, I'd say this method works.

You can also scatter some oats over the top for an even more textured topping.

16.03.2013

Finally its Ribollita time!

Celery arrived in my veg box weeks ago which made me want to cook one of my all time favourite dishes - Ribollita - only I've struggled to find the time till now.

Some people, such as the River Cafe, seem to consider this dish a summer dish. I suppose to a degree it is as ingredients include fresh tomatoes and kale which are mid summer/autumn seasonal produce. However, I feel the soup works equally well in winter using tinned tomatoes and savoy cabbage.

Why is Ribollita so lauded when it is essentially a basic veg soup with beans? A fair question, but I think its the fact that one takes the time to cook the ingredients properly, the slice of toasted sourdough soaking up the juices in the bottom of your bowl and the drizzle of olive oil.

There are many recipes for Ribollita - all similar, but with a different balance of ingredients. I think everyone has their personal favourite (perhaps its a Vedic food thing?). The River Cafe and Jamie Oliver prefer a very green soup (did Jamie learn his from Ruthie & Rose?). I prefer a more tomato-based soup.

I have tended to refer to the Riverford recipe, but today I decided to follow the one in Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall's VEG book. I think this is the best recipe I've found - Its extremely simple (some Ribollita recipes are overwhelmingly long-winded for something this is essentially vegetable soup). The veg are chopped really fine, sweated for a decent length of time and then the soup is simmered for a full hour before being finished off. The addition of the herbs tied together and the garlic on the toasted bread add an extra flavour which takes it from simple vegetable soup to something wonderful. Hugh also suggests that if you are using tinned beans, you should mash half of them with a bit of water. This is new to me, but seems to help create the right consistency, especially when you consider freshly cooked beans tend to be softer than the tinned option.

It has not escaped me that both Riverford and Hugh F-W both promote rustic, kitchen garden cooking, whilst the River Cafe and JO promote seasonal produce with an urban flair.

A post run/yoga energy giving meal - perfect set up for a Sunday afternoon in the burgeoning spring sunshine sewing seeds and bulbs!

And the left-overs are in the fridge where the flavours are continuing to expand - can't wait for supper tomorrow!

03.03.13

Comfort food for the ill 1

Ken has a stinking cold... after watching Life of Pi at the cinema (finally - and isn't it amazing? Can't find a fault with it), he insisted on trawling the shops to buy a new laptop for me. I feel a bit odd having a laptop brought for me, feel its a bit of a waste of money and have many other things I need (a sewing machine that works?)... I shouldn't worry though as its not really for me, its for techno-obsessed-Ken but I will use it! 

And to make him feel worse, we came home empty-handed.

So dinner needed to be something to warm him and make him feel snug inside....

You probably think I should have made a healing chicken noddle broth, but I didn't have any chicken. I did have a lovely little autumn cup squash though.... and some delicious Helen Browning organic back bacon (I do think this bacon is really scrummy - great flavour and not all watery)... and some feta..... Mmmmmm - what a great combination - now, what to cook?

I had it in my mind I wanted to do a pasta bake. For me, bakes, with their crispy tops, are the ultimate simple/rustic warming comfort food. But I couldn't be sure how to make a sauce so that it wasn't dry and tasteless - do I do a white sauce, for example, but that would be bland surely? 

A brief search on the web in the usual places (BBCGoodFood  & BBC Food, predominantly -not very adventurous I agree!) I found a recipe for a macaroni cheese that used squash - BBCGoodFood - Butternut-Macaroni-Cheese. Whilst some people had found it to be a bit bland, others had sung the recipe's praises. So I decided to add some bacon and sprinkle feta on the top to boost the flavour.

Served with a simple salad of lettuce, tomatoes, avocado & red onion with a balsamic vinegar dressing to make sure Ken got some vitamins!

Whilst I don't like buying tomatoes at this time of year as they are not 'in season', the lettuce has come in my veg box, so whilst a greenhouse item, I can be sure that it has been grown under ethical conditions that are not compromising the environment in any way, and providing year-round employment to those who grown them.

02.03.13

A comforting Sunday lunch

After a freezing cold bike ride what more do you want than a restoring roast dinner? 

The old reliable when it comes to roasts in my mind is Nigel Slater... so today, as directed by him, I finely chopped up the leaves of three large rosemary stems, mixed them with olive oil and a pinch of Maldon salt and rubbed it all over a leg of lamb on the bone. This was then laid on a bed of the remaining rosemary twigs and a whole garlic bulb sliced in half. 

I only had a (very) small piece of lamb, and was worried that my enthusiasm with the rosemary and garlic would be too over-empowering, but it was just fine. Whilst you could taste the rosemary and garlic, the taste of the sweet lamb meat was also prevalent. 

I also managed to get the lamb right - lightly pink.

Served with roasted potatoes and a turnip (I'm Scottish - you may know it better as swede) & carrot mash made with lashings of butter and ground pepper. Mashing carrots it quite hard - not fully possible - if anyone knows the secret, please let me know.

All topped off by probably one of the most delicious apple crumbles I think I've ever had. I got the bramley apples from work - ordered by mistake for eating apples (we provide a fruit in the afternoon to help with the afternoon slump) - weeks ago. Maybe old apples are sweeter?!

Time for a snooze...............

24.02.12

Curry night no. 1

I've been thinking of cooking a curry for a while as I picked up a great Indian cookbook a while ago and never use it. Last time was Ken's birthday in 2011 when I did a curry night for 10 friends we had over for his birthday. 

Its Saturday night, I've defrosted some plump organic chicken breasts and want to do something special with them. Saturday... hmmmm... a perfect night for a curry with a movie, don't you think?

After a browse through the book for a chicken dish, vegetable dish and rice dish bearing in mind the ingredients I have in the house... plus a trip to the shop, I got going.... only to discover that I'm still missing a key item as I'd got parsley instead of coriander... so another trip to the shop (this time the small Asda on the High St 10 mins walk away as can't face going back to the local corner shop again) plus a slight menu change and I'm off on my curry extravaganza!

Menu: Chicken Rogan Josh, Aloo Gobi and Mushroom Rice.

Well, thankfully as I expected, it was all fairly straightforward, but cooking three unknown dishes brings a certain level of confusion! The cook book is simply presented and the instructions beautifully clear - what a treat... I meticulously prepared all the ingredients into little dishes like you see on TV cooking programmes. I think this is essential when cooking curries as you have to 'throw' ingredients into the pan at certain stages & timing is important (you don't want to burn the spices, or anything) - so best to have them all ready and to hand.

And the result (by which time it was almost 10pm - oops) was DELICIOUS!!!! The fresh tomato taste, the light spices, the chunky chicken pieces... the full flavour of the rice from being cooked in veg stock.... unfortunately the potatoes and cauliflower of the aloo gobi were overcooked and very soft, but for a first attempt, I think I did pretty well, thank you!

Forget Indian take-aways - even if they are meant to be 'upmarket'... fresh tastes SO much better, but maybe with a bit more preparation. 

Now, when can I do it again?

23.02.13

Is this the best carrot soup ever?

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/soups/carrot-and-coriander-soup.html

As I think I've already mentioned I get carrots a lot in my veg box and frankly, there's only so many ways to cook carrots, usually boiled as a side dish.

Now don't get me wrong, I like carrots and I know they're good for you, in particular they keep your eyes healthy, but I do not find many opportunities for boiled carrots on the side. Perhaps once every 2-3 weeks when I might cook a roast or griddle a piece of meat.

I often shave them with a peeler and add to salads (more 'classy' than grating!). Mainly in summer. Very tasty with feta, seeds and lots if other ingredients.

No matter how often I try to use them, I still always have a big bag in my fridge which I never get through. After a while I decide they're too old and there are too many and they all get dumped in the compost bin. What a waste!

Oh and they come covered with earth making the fridge filthy. Not that I mind the earth, I just hate having to clean the fridge so often!

Anyway, I brought a large bunch of coriander from the corner shop last week so it made sense to mix it with the carrots and make carrot and coriander soup, using up both before they went off.

Hmmmm.... carrot and coriander soup... Not something I ever crave for frankly. However, this recipe of Delia's was different to the others and I know Delia can be a stalwart for 'traditional' recipes - no short cuts which is funny from the woman who told everyone it's ok to use ready chopped onions, etc. So why not give it ago? Especially as I even had creme fresh which also needed eaten up.

As with pretty much all soups it is effortless to make and it's blatantly a naughty soup as you soften the carrots in lots of butter.

I had 1.5kg carrots so divided everything into 3/4. This made enough for two greedy people like Ken and me, or three small appetites.

And it was absolutely delicious!! Creamy, flavoursome, wholesome, spicy.

I'm now a covert to carrot and coriander soup.... as long as it's done Delia's way please.

Shame I didn't have any more carrots!

06.02.13

Ps. Congratulations to another amateur cook in the family - Flora - for getting into senior school AND being awarded the art scholarship.

A touch of Mexican?

Spent 30 mins in dental hygienist chair yesterday running through the ingredients in the fridge trying to decide what to make for supper... Kept coming back to butternut squash which we had the night before, or soup which I had for lunch...

Decided to pop by Whole Foods for a loaf of their tasty sourdough and check out their ready meals... Only it transpired they don't really do ready meals... Still no closer. Did spot some cooking chorizo which was reasonably priced and always good to have in stock to bring flavour.

Headed home in a torrential rain storm. Not good when you're wearing jeans on the bike!!

Hot bath to warm up and time for some inspiration from the web... Finally I recalled the tasty Mexican dish Huevos Rancheros - phew! A little more research and up popped this recipe http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1959651/potato-pepper-and-chorizo-stew-with-fried-eggs. Simple, tasty sounding and I had all the ingredients except parsley (as too wet to go outside to pick), but had coriander instead.

True to its description this took no effort and cheered me up nicely after my soaking. However, Riverford's chorizo is much better as this one which I felt was rather bland. Even the one I brought in Sainsbury's was better.

The winning supper streak continued tonight as my chunky veg soup was full of flavour and great textures.

1 red onion, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 green chilli, finely chopped
1 very large carrot, sliced into 0.5cm rings
1/4 large butternut squash, cut into large chunks
1/4 broccoli, cut into medium florets, including some of the stem (I like the flavour of the stem best)
1/2 red pepper, cut into chunks
2tbsp coriander, chopped
Veg stock, enough to cover veg
1/4 Savoy cabbage, shredded into 1cm slices
1/2 400g tin cannelenni beans, rinsed

Heat oil. Gently cook onions for few mins, then add garlic and chilli and continue to cook over low heat until soft, stirring often

Add veg except cabbage and cook for a few minutes.

Add stock and bring to boil then turn down and simmer for 10-15 mins, till veg cooked.

Add cabbage and beans and check seasoning. Cook for a few more mins till cabbage beginning to wilt and warmed through.

Add coriander and serve.

29.01.13

Comfort with a twist

Good ol' cottage pie (beef I think is cottage, whilst lamb would be shepherds'). Waitrose had their lean mince on 50% off per kg so 400g cost less than £3, fitting in with the post Christmas pinch feeling.

But I did parsnip mash and cheddar cheese on top to give it something a bit out the ordinary and suitable for a weekend dinner... plus I got to use the parsnips in this week's veg box. Haven't had parsnips yet this year in the box, so a nice new flavour.

Served with yet more Savoy cabbage... Had a lot of it over the last two months... But judging by the tiny wee size of this one, they may be coming to an end. I might miss it though as its nice to have something bright green on the plate, and its always very tasty and versatile.

Need to think up some more uses for carrots as supply growing again!

26.01.13

Chocolate chip banana cake take 2

Since it was SO delicious last time and I had two black bananas needing to be used up, I thought I'd make it again.

This time with muscovado sugar (light version) as Nigel suggests in his recipe. I expected it to be darker in colour, but I think it's too strong.

The cake is not as light and moist as last time, although this might be partly due to the 75g of bananas I didn't put in (don't ask why as I have them!), and its much sweeter. Cooking time was about the same.

I think I'll stick with light brown soft sugar in future!

Hey ho... It's still cake and cake is always good, partly because it seems greedy to eat cake in the middle of the afternoon in between meals.

26.01.13

Nigel Take Two

Tonight's challenge was to turn the leftover chicken noodle broth into something tasty, resembling what I think it's meant to...

Took meat off bone, warmed stock, added sliced mushrooms and the leftover cooked Savoy cabbage along with the pieces of meat.

Simmered noodles rather than left them to sit in hot water.

Drained noodles and put in a bowl. Poured broth mixture over the top.

MUCH tastier and edible, but still lacking a bit of flavour. Did forget to add the Thai basil though (what am I going to do with it now?).

Even got a thank you peck on the cheek from Ken!

Note: Nigel definitely didn't test that recipe. I think he meant to tell you to strain the broth after cooking it. Next time I'll know what to do eh!

21.01.2013

What was Nigel thinking?

Healthy chicken noodle broth turned into a cold, tasteless and very awkward to eat dinner...

For many weeks I have been looking forward to this chicken broth with its cinnamon, star anise and Thai basil flavours: expecting to feel healthy and cleansed after. Only the surprisingly tasty Daylesford Organic chicken softened this disaster. Another silver star to Daylesford for producing quality produce (there eggs were really tasty too).

Not sure how Nigel does it, but meat on the bone in a watery broth was never going to be easy to eat. Maybe my choice of chicken pieces wasn't correct (he did say wings though which I included), and/or my spices were not quality enough or too old. I admit I only had thick rice noodles rather than thin ones, but surely that's a minor detail and its not going to affect taste is it?

He said to take the broth off the heat and leave to sit whilst you cook the noodles and greens, which meant it went cold. Not helped as the noodles asked to be cooked by soaking in hot water for 15 mins by which time the water was cold.

Hmmm... I might try again, but would take meat off the bone to serve and mix the greens with the broth, reheat and serve OVER the noodles. I will try this with the leftovers.

Otherwise, all I can think is I'm not meant to serve the meat, just use it for flavour, but what a waste!

Perhaps I should ask Nigel.

However all was not lost today as Hetti and Stuart came over for tea. In opposition to last week they brought the goodies - wholesome butternut squash soup which we had with some sourdough bread I had, lightly toasted with lashings of unsalted butter, finished Hetti's signature chocolate chip cookies🍪. We ate them all, of course.

Chorizo time & veg boxes

I get a small veg box from Riverford every two weeks. This forms the basis of what we eat and I love the challenge it brings deciding what to cook / how to cook the mix of veg. I also have enjoyed learning about new veg I wasn't very familiar with (some of which have become my favourites, like celeriac and garlic leaves) and discovering new ways of cooking common veg. Surprisingly we don't eat lots of soup, but I believe I have come quite adept at making soup and have a few more unusual soup recipes in my repertoire using up certain veg.

Riverford also do a great cook book and a pretty handy app which is where tonight's dinner came from: cabbage, chorizo & potato hash served with a poached egg on top.

Another reason for singing the praises of Riverford is that whilst the recipe called for 'cabbage', they really mean you to use kale as it would work best, but it's flexible and any cabbage or greens will do. I used Savoy cabbage. This is a great lesson in learning to look beyond the ingredient and understand how they come in families and can be interchangeable.

Oh, and I cooked this because chorizo always gets lots of appreciation from Ken!

Btw, yesterday I threw together some penne, fried chorizo, what was left of a jar of pesto together with a few glugs of olive oil, topped with crumbled feta. Gotta say that the chorizo / feta combo was a treat, both smoothing out the other's potential for bring too strong. Might be onto something....

For our tired bodies last night we had comfort food in the shape of Riverford's very tasty pork and apple sausages, cauliflower cheese and baked potatoes. Riverford also do great meat.

14.01.2013

What do kids and adults like?

Tea at Tessa's today so thought I'd bake a cake. She's got two kids - Tom who's 6 and Flora who's 4. What will they like? Probably not a plum cake so those plums will have to continue going off. Can't think of an apple cake, so ditto the three apples in the fruit bowl. Don't have the cream cheese for one of my favourite cakes - Ottolenghi's carrot cake... mmmm.

Do however have two going over-ripe bananas which I'm not going to eat as I like mine almost underripe. And I've got my new Nigel Slater book and I know he likes cakes. Perfect - Nigel's chocolaty banana cake. Easy to make too!

Flora and Tom declared it delicious and banana cake was their favourite cake. So all round winner. It was light, moist and full of flavour - maybe I'm finally understanding when to take a cake out the oven?

Then it was off to Hereford Road (http://www.herefordroad.org/) to appease the adult taste buds with their lovely British rustic cooking - quality seasonal produce beautifully cooked with great wine. Only thing I'd say is that I'd have preferred my treacle tart warm.

Other made

Last night was girlie catch up night with the wonderful Hetti. Download what we've been doing, spurt out any current gripes, EAT... and get home in good time. What more could a girl want for a midweek night out?!

We went to http://rosaslondon.com/spitalfields/ for a very spicy and tasty red curry stir fry.

Tonight was after work drinks and a pizza when I got home in the oven. Tried Tesco's Finest wood-fired as feel Pizza Express has lost some quality and bored of them... but not good. Back to boring old Pizza Express it seems. Hmmm...

Looking forward to tomorrow's lie in and dinner out St John's-style.

Annabel's celeriac & chorizo soup

Tonight I decided to ditch all recipes. When I considered how many times have I made soup (esp. veg ones which I make up) and how many times I have made celeriac soup it's ridiculous that I still feel the need to check what to do in a recipe. So....

Serves 2-3

600g celeriac, peeled and chopped into chunks
1/2 large or 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
750ml vegetable stock
Approx. 5cm chunk of chorizo sausage, chopped into small cubes
50ml cream
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

Heat some olive oil in a large saucepan, add the onions and season with salt and pepper. Gently fry the onion till soft. Add the celeriac and continue to fry for a few more minutes. Pour in the stock and bring to a simmer. Simmer until the celeriac is soft, approx 15-20 mins.

Once cooked, whizz in a blender, magi-mix or similar until smooth. Return to the pan and check seasoning. Add the cream and reheat. Meanwhile fry the chorizo until crispy.

To serve, pour into bowls and scatter the chorizo on top.

Verdict: pretty darn tasty if I may say so myself!

And out go the recipe books for soups!

Instant dinner

Worked late, so home late. No inclination and not really enough time to make the soup I'd intended. Had healthy instant dinner last night so it was a packet of miso soup (that's healthy though isn't it?) with a cheddar cheese and pickle sourdough sandwich. One saving grace is that I had nice bread and the pickle was made by my sister. Chunky but very tasty!

Don't ask me what Ken and Mowgli had... Too grim. Can still smell it too.

Beating those Monday blues

It's Monday night... Mid week cooking begins... How to make something tasty with as little effort and time as possible as don't get home till 8pm-ish.

Today, adding to the need for simplicity, Ken is still ill with chesty/asthma thing and I've had stomach pains most of the day.

Easiest healthy dinner? That's an omelette of course! Tonight spruced up with a colourful fennel, tomato, red onion, feta and (more leftover) puy lentil salad.

Tried something new - seasoned the mushrooms as they cooked instead of the egg mixture. Tasted good, but couldn't say if better. The vinegary dressing of the salad was a nice complement to the cheesy mushroom omelette though.

Mmm.. The French make good sauces!

Thanks to Rouxbe.com for their very clear instructions, today's dinner is based on a typical French dish by Julia Childs (inspiration for this blog by the way).

No white wine so used Dry Vermouth instead, although less on basis it has a stronger flavour. Seemed to work fine which is good to know as rarely have spare white wine hanging around.

Required patience to really reduce the sauce when necessary, but worth it... Managed to season it well too. And Riverford's (giant) organic chicken breasts had great flavour. DELICIOUS!!

Used my sister's technique for mashed potatoes - very smooth and creamy. No need to replace broken ricer now.

Hopefully just what Ken needs to feel strong and healthy again and get rid of his cold.

Ode to Sophie Braimbridge!

A bit 'freecycle' today (although gave a lunch token worth £3.50 for the recycled ingredients).

Take two lovely fresh salmon pieces left over from lunch at work yesterday, season and pan fry.

Serve with a puy lentil, romanesco broccoli (both from work as well), tomato, red onion, parsley (from the garden) and fennel salad plus buttery boiled small potatoes...

And you get a simple yet luxury Saturday night dinner.

However, think I should have roasted the fennel to serve alongside rather than include in the salad. Next time.

Its Friday already!

Fridge is empty other than a cabbage and lots of red onions.... And am very broke after xmas... Hmmmm.... What to eat that won't cost money?

Stopped at local corner shop for a red pepper which joined the half red pepper in the fridge in the oven. Once roasted, peeled and whizzed up with some cream, pinch of paprika and lots of seasoning. Served with pasta. Tasty. But weirdly sweet.

Leftovers

Warmed up the leftover juice and beans from yesterday's casserole - delicious with crusty bread!!

And more chocolate birthday cake of course 🍰

Happy Birthday to me!

Sausage and bean casserole for six adults and four kids in our one bed flat for lunch for sausage and bean casserole - cooked yesterday with a thumping New Year's Day hangover.

Served with rather lumpy mash and almost forgotten Savoy cabbage (guess I'm loosing brain cells now I'm 37), washed down with my new fav fizz:


And followed by panettone bread and butter pudding and...  a very chocolaty cake made by Tal, Flora and Myla.



Here we all are after a few rounds of table tennis on the kitchen table!

All topped of with a nice glass of Prosecco 🍸